Many of today’s compact and SLR digital cameras are dropping in price and are capable of capturing 8, 10, 12 or more megapixel files. Higher resolution cameras enable you to produce larger prints. Printer manufacturers are taking full advantage of this new user base, and this year we have seen some impressive larger format printer launches. Earlier this year Canon announced two professional quality printers; the Pixma Pro 9000 and Pixma Pro 9500 - (the 9500 is not available yet). Both printers are aimed at the professional and serious hobbyist market, they compliment Canon’s impressive range of Pro SLR cameras and indeed other manufacturers cameras too.
I was surprised that Canon launched another A3 dye ink printer, especially as both HP and Epson are moving away from dye inks to the more stable pigment ink. The Pro 9000 uses ChromaLife 100 inks, and prints using Canon's own media are claimed to have a 100 year life in an album, or 30 years behind glass. Unframed photographs have a dramatically reduced lifespan of 10+ years. Canon are not sitting back on their success with dye ink printers, they also have a pigment ink printer, the Pixma Pro 9500 sitting in the wings waiting for the final nuts and bolts to be tightened, this won’t be available until early 2007. For this review I will take a close look at the Pixma Pro 9000 printer, this uses eight individual dye ink cartridges – sorry tanks!
The review will be both in video and the usual web pages format, so lets start by taking a look at what is included in the box.
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photo-i would like to thank Canon UK for supplying the Canon XL2 camera
used in our video reviews |
Setting up on the next page
